Open Economics Guide: A guide to open research
New impetus for transparency, reproducibility and teaching in science
The ZBW’s Open Economics Guide offers researchers in economics practical support for integrating open science into their work. With a new topic area Open Code, the expansion of the Open Science Toolkit and the provision of teaching materials, practice-oriented offers were created in 2024 that promote transparency, reproducibility and knowledge transfer. The following highlights provide an overview of the most important developments of the past year.
Promoting reproducibility through open code
In 2024, the Open Economics Guide was expanded to include the topic area “Open Code” in order to provide economic researchers with targeted support in the creation and use of open source code. The new section offers a comprehensive introduction to the practice of open code as an important building block for a central concern of transparent science: the reproducibility of research results.
Open code refers to source texts that are created for scientific work, such as data analyses, statistical models or simulations, and are publicly accessible. Appropriate open source licences ensure that third parties can use, further develop and share the code. This not only promotes the exchange of knowledge, but also strengthens the transparency of scientific methods and results. Researchers can learn from each other, verify existing approaches and build on them.
The new section of the Open Economics Guide offers practical assistance for all aspects of open code. This includes instructions on how to identify and reuse existing open code, strategies for creating and publishing your own source code and information on suitable licences. Questions such as: How do I recognise high-quality open code? What steps do I need to take to create my own code and make it publicly available? Or: How can I cite open code and integrate it into my work?
With this practice-orientated content, the Open Economics Guide provides a low-threshold approach to the topic and makes it easier for researchers to use open code in their scientific workflow. The added value goes beyond mere reproducibility: openly accessible code can intensify collaboration between researchers, provide innovative impetus and minimise redundancies in research
With the introduction of Open Code, the Open Economics Guide is responding to the growing relevance of openness in science. This is in line with the requirements of many scientific journals, which increasingly demand the provision of the underlying code (and data) as a standard for publications. The Open Economics Guide thus helps to sustainably improve the quality, traceability and credibility of scientific work and to strengthen the foundations of good scientific practice.
140 tools in the Open Science Tools catalogue
The Open Science Toolkit of the Open Economics Guide is growing: The collection now comprises around 140 tools that support economic researchers in effectively implementing Open Science in all phases of their scientific workflow. This broad selection offers solutions for a wide range of requirements, from data preparation and analysis to the publication of research results, collaboration and knowledge transfer.
The tools were selected according to clear criteria in order to best fulfil the needs of the economics community. Many of the tools can be used free of charge, offering a low-threshold entry point. Many of the tools are open source, which enables further development by the community and at the same time ensures transparency and long-term usability. In addition, some basic information about the operators of the tools is recorded. This allows users to quickly recognise whether a tool is in the hands of scientific institutions or communities, for example, and therefore has a non-profit approach.
The toolkit is geared towards the various phases of the scientific workflow and offers economists targeted support in areas such as data management, analysis and visualisation, publication and collaboration.
With 140 carefully selected tools, the toolkit not only contributes to increasing the efficiency of scientific work, but also supports the dissemination of good scientific practice. By constantly expanding the collection, the toolkit remains a dynamic resource that meets the changing needs of the economics community.
Support for teaching through open science slide sets
An important milestone was reached in 2024: The Open Economics Guide responded to the explicit request of the community and published freely editable slide sets for the first time to introduce the basics of open science. This offer is aimed specifically at lecturers in economics who want to introduce students and doctoral candidates to the principles and methods of open research. The presentations are available under the open licence CC-BY 4.0 and offer maximum flexibility for individual adaptation to specific teaching contexts.
The slide sets in various formats (PPTX, ODP, PDF) cover the central aspects of transparent and collaborative research in open science, including open access, open data and open code. They have been developed to promote understanding of the benefits and opportunities of open science and to provide new impetus for research and teaching. The material is didactically structured in such a way that it is suitable for lectures as well as seminars and workshops.
Dr Guido Scherp, Head of the Open Science Transfer department, explained: “A central aim of this offer is to support teachers in sensitising researchers to the importance and practice of open science at an early stage. The slides are intended to help establish openness as an integral part of scientific work and prepare a new generation of researchers for future-oriented research. In addition to conveying specialised content, this will also raise awareness of the ethical and social aspects of open science.”
This development is a direct result of the active involvement of the scientific community in the design of the Open Economics Guide. The demand for editable teaching material was repeatedly emphasised in surveys and feedback and this area will be further expanded in the future. By providing this service, the Open Economics Guide is strengthening its function as a practical partner for researchers and teachers alike.
*This text was written on 17 April 2025.
This text was translated on 12 May 2025 using DeeplPro.